Identifying Efficient and Profitable Farm Enterprises in Uasin-Gishu County, in Kenya

N. Kibet ； J. K. Lagat ； G. A. Obare

《Asian Journal of Agricultural Sciences》 3卷5期 (2011/09) Pp. 378-384

並列摘要

In Uasin-Gishu County, many of the farm enterprises are associated with low incomes due to price fluctuation, poor utilization of scarce production resources and increasing land sub-division. To improve the low farm incomes, farmers have gradually diversified their farming activities by adopting other farm enterprises perceived to be high yielding with high market value. The objective of this study was to compare Technical Efficiency (TE) and Gross Margins (GM) of different farm enterprises within Uasin-Gishu County to help farmers make informed decisions on the right combination of farm enterprises that eventually improve farm income. Cross-sectional data from 100 randomly selected farmers were collected and subjected to Gross Margin Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods to determine Gross Margins and Technical Efficiency scores respectively. The results showed that, passion fruit and dairy farming had the lowest level of Technical Efficiencies (56.6 and 43.4%, respectively) and higher levels of Gross Margins (Kshs 195,167 and Kshs 27, 653, respectively). Relative to maize and wheat on the other hand, maize and wheat had the highest level of Technical Efficiencies (66.3 and 75.3%, respectively) and at the same time low Gross Margin levels (Kshs 27, 328 and Kshs 27,353, respectively) relative to passion fruit and dairy farming. Passion fruit and dairy farming were the more profitable farm enterprises and have a lot of potential to improve farm incomes than maize and wheat farming but only if proper utilization of the scarce resources is observed.

並列關鍵字

Diversification ； farm enterprises ； gross margin ； low farm income ； technical efficiencies